Finally made a Grav/Storm...need help

[bartwart1]

After playing around with some knockback theme toons, I finally decided to up my game with a Grav/Storm.  I'm currently 30 with no IOs slotted.  Leveling him up, I find myself leaning on the storm powers a lot for support, and the gravity powers for offense.  I don't find the AOE immob and hold all that useful.

 

I did just picked up hurricane and wormhole.  I'm wondering how to optimally use those powers together.  Any advice?

 

Also, does it make sense to IO slot this toon with yellows and oranges, or are commons just time?  I don't want the toon to be TOO powerful.

Edited September 14, 2019 by bartwart1

[Yomo Kimyata]

I’ve got mine only a few levels ahead of you.  I mostly solo, so your experiences may differ if you team a lot.  I mostly immobilize mobs to keep them out of my face, then single target gravity power them to death one at a time.  Generally, I’m only using freezing rain from storm at this point.

 

I rarely use wormhole and never use hurricane at this point, but I think a great method for either teaming or for when you have some storm offense is to wormhole a mob into a corner, hurricane them to further bunch them up, maybe AOE Immob to keep them there, then let AOE damage from your teammates or lightning storm or tornado do its work.

 

I’d definitely go with IO sets.  I’m currently running with a few sets of Entropic Chaos and a few sets of Basilisks Gaze, both of which provide nice recharge bonuses.  You can get a full 5-piece set of Entropic Chaos for 5-10mm, and four pieces of Basilisks for about the same.  Money definitely well spent.

Edited September 14, 2019 by Yomo Kimyata
Speeling

[Uun]

Use Crushing Field to stop mobs from running out of Freezing Rain (it doesn't negate the knockdown). Crushing Field can also be used with Wormhole to stop the stunned mobs from wandering off.

 

Hurricane is awesome, but takes some practice to use with a team otherwise you'll piss off all your melee teammates. Huge tohit debuff. Great for blocking doorways or herding mobs into corners or dead end hallways. Tougher to use on open maps. 

 

Many ways to use Wormhole without Hurricane, but the best way to use them together is to Wormhole a mob against a wall and use Hurricane to pin them there. 

[quixoteprog]

I just got Wormhole and have yet to work out how to make it really useful. I mostly open up with Crushing Field and Freezing Rain to hold them in place, then single target them, as has been said before in this thread.

 

I find the hurricane to be incredibly useful with CoT ghosts though. Not sure why, I think the holds just don't seem to work as well on them? Maybe makes sense since, you know, ghosts, gravity? Not sure, but those things would eat my lunch until I got Hurricane. With it running though they will be too busy rushing in and getting pushed back to actually attack as much and it gives me time to burn them down.

 

Everyone else probably knows this already, but I restate it because it took a while for it to actually sink in with me. Some mobs are more resistant to certain hold effects, not just damage typesd. Like the Vahzilok zombies will not stay asleep, although dominate/holds seems to work much better. Don't know if anyone has compiled a list of holds that work better on one thing than another, but I would love to see one if they have.

 

Those Arachnose Fortunata mentalists are pretty slippery as well. Not sure what works on them.

 

[VV]

Uff, Grav/Storm, welcome to GODMODE. Grav/Storm is my other main. I have tried to find a combo that works better, but haven't yet. Well, aside from the old Ill/Rad, but that's cheating, so whatever. Some tips:

1) Slot everything for damage that takes damage. Slot Snowstorm for slow, slot Grav Dist Field for Hold, Hurricane for -ToHit.

2) I do recommend slotting with yellow attuned IOs, unless you can afford reds, of course. Note that I am an IO addict, so I might be biased. I love Attuned because they level up with you, so once they are slotted, there is no need to swap them out until 50 when you start Purpling. Saves so much time at the store.

3)  Now for some tactics. Hurricane is an end-hog and an annoyance, but that -ToHit and -Range is so sweet. Generally only use it in 2 situations. 1) You get overwhelmed and need to run. Turn it on and blow (literally) through all the opponents to get clear. or 2) You are up against a hard target, like a Boss, AV, EB or something. Those won't be tossed and reducing their hitting you helps a lot.

4) Crushing Field, spam it for AOE damage. Also good as mentioned above to keep things in Freezing Rain. With Freezing Rain and CF spam, you can wipe out large groups of minions pretty quickly.

5) Wormhole, literally my favorite power in the game. If you team a lot, drop in one of those KB>KD enhancements and suddenly it goes from a conditional/annoying power, to one of the most useful powers in the game. The thing I did not realize till I did that is that Wormhole actually deposits your opponents in a tight pile. This is great for stacking dispersed enemies tightly on a tank. I have seen people tank with Wormhole as their opener. BOOM suddenly you have a bunch of delirious baddies where you want them. I do slot WH for stun, but at lower levels, make sure you have plent of ACC in it. Solo, I like to drop Freezing Rain, then WH them into it, and lock them with CF. Amazing opener

6) Slot the heck out of Singularity. It is embarrassing that it is a better controller than you are, but it is okay since it's on your side. I 6-slot it as soon as I can. It will save your life many times over.

7) Lightning storm is another life-saver and a good source of damage.

8 ) When you get Tornado, slot it with one of those KD>KB enhancements and suddenly you have yourself an invulnerable tank. I learned this trick from other Stormie. You open by putting Tornie out in the middle of the spawn mob, it can't be killed, and the alpha damage on you is mitigated because they are all falling down. Then slot it for Def Debuff, and you have a nice boss grinder. 

9) Once you get all your Stormie powers, you can lean on them for DPS. The ones that do damage are quite good at it.

10) Also, your pet, Singularity, and pseudo-pets, Tornado and Lightning Storm, are actually quite smart. There have been many a times when I have been working on one enemy only to turn around and see that they all have chased down and cleaned up the rest. It's weird, but lean on them.

11) Try to get out of the habit of using Gravity Distortion Field on the regular. I know, some people may say that is heresy, but really, you rarely need it. But, when you do need it, you NEEEEEED it. Just leave there, unused, until the sheet hits the fan, then throw it out there to manage whatever mess happened. Like, if there is a big ambush, drop GDF on it, and boom, handled.

12) In teams, you are going to want to rush ahead and tank because everyone else is too slow and mouthbreathing (This urge gets especially bad when you get your Epic Pool). Try not to do that. You are best as rear guard, cleanup, and disaster crew. Do NOT put Lightning Storm in the middle of the spawn. Put it towards the rear or any escape route, that way it can go ahead and zap anybody who decides to run. Singularity sits over your shoulder and guards your back, and is also good for nailing runners that you miss. I have seen Singularity single-handedly break up massive ambushes and keep the whole thing busy until the rest of the team realizes that there was an ambush and comes to put it down.

13) Another reason to stand back a bit is that if things get tough, you can turn on Hurricane and give cover to the other squishies. In addition,your Hurricane can stop any runners that try to get past.

 

Well, that should get you going. Welcome to the mayhem!

[VV]

On 9/17/2019 at 3:28 PM, quixoteprog said:

Everyone else probably knows this already, but I restate it because it took a while for it to actually sink in with me. Some mobs are more resistant to certain hold effects, not just damage typesd. Like the Vahzilok zombies will not stay asleep, although dominate/holds seems to work much better. Don't know if anyone has compiled a list of holds that work better on one thing than another, but I would love to see one if they have.

 

Those Arachnose Fortunata mentalists are pretty slippery as well. Not sure what works on them.

 

One thing to note is that, as far as I know, everything is affected by Slow. Your Immobs and Holds also include Slow effects. In the olden days, everyone talked about how controllers were bad vs the Romans because they were so resistant to Holds. But, they are not resistant to slows and you can get one of those Minotaurs moving so slow that anyone can kill it before it even crosses to its target.

[Uun]

13 hours ago, VV said:

One thing to note is that, as far as I know, everything is affected by Slow. Your Immobs and Holds also include Slow effects. In the olden days, everyone talked about how controllers were bad vs the Romans because they were so resistant to Holds. But, they are not resistant to slows and you can get one of those Minotaurs moving so slow that anyone can kill it before it even crosses to its target.

War Wolves are immune to immobilize and slow. I'm sure there are a few others I'm not thinking of.

[VV]

On 9/19/2019 at 11:46 AM, Uun said:

War Wolves are immune to immobilize and slow. I'm sure there are a few others I'm not thinking of.

Really? Those are Council, right? I guess I never noticed. The KB gets those guys LOL. That's the great thing about a Grav/Storm is that there are so many different control/mitigation types, that nobody has a chance.